


Destiny Freely Chosen

by Tea (graychalk)



Category: Naruto
Genre: Character Study, Community: naruto100, Deathfic, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-06-12
Updated: 2007-06-12
Packaged: 2017-11-20 23:49:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 275
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/591070
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/graychalk/pseuds/Tea
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There was a time when Neji had openly cursed his destiny. He hoped now that it wasn't what people would remember.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Destiny Freely Chosen

**Author's Note:**

> Written for naruto100's "Abandonment" challenge, with a bonus for _rain_. The timeline is somewhere in the imaginary future on some battlefield.

The irony didn't escape him as he lay there on the muddy ground, staring at the unconscious figure next to him. To begin with, it was his duty to die for her.  
  
Blinking once, twice in the unrelenting rain, Neji wondered if he'd drown first before life managed to drain out of him completely.  
  
"I need help over here! Somebody!"  
  
 _Desperation._  
  
If he thought he could summon up enough will to do so, he would've told Sakura not to bother. Instead, he laughed, shortly and bitterly. In the end, this was his destiny after all. Just as his father had died for Hiashi-sama, his life was merely a substitute for Hinata's and who she might become.  
  
What would Naruto say to that, he couldn't help thinking.  
  
Death, Neji had always believed, was something he didn't fear. It was such an inherent part of shinobi life that it would be foolish for any ninja to think himself above such a fate. Even now, as he reached over to clasp his fingers over hers, he couldn't say for sure whether he was afraid of his own death. Yet fear was all he thought of right then.  
  
Fear for abandoning her. For how how she would blame herself. For how she would break herself, thinking she wasn't strong enough.  
  
He hoped his Hyuuga destiny wasn't what people would choose to remember. And he hoped his words all those years ago wasn't what she would choose to dwell on. He hoped she would, instead, remember that this was a destiny he had freely chosen.  
  
Perhaps, Naruto would say he died for something worthy.  
  
He would've liked that, he thought.


End file.
